Long story short Auto Zone sold me a CV axle that did not have a snap ring on the end to hold it into the differential. For whatever reason I missed that and installed it in my car. It has resulted in two tows, and me having to pull both cv's, drop the front subframe out of the car, and pull the differential out as now that side won't slide in without great force.

I needed to replace the driver side anyways as well so I ordered that one and this time it came with a snap ring on verifying that they should have sold me the pasenger side with the snap ring on as well.

So I may have to replace the new passenger side cv and the differential as well as wasting money on flui and a **** ton of time. Basically the guy at autozone said I am pretty much sol (He is trying to help me but I inferred) because auto zone does not back the parts the supplier does. The supplier will only really listen to you a credited shops word not mine. What gets me is autozone does not sell parts to shops they sell them to backyard mechanics and they advertise themselves as such. I spend a lot and I mean a lot of time and money in that store (the guys there all know it). The bottom line is they sold me a part that was supposed to be a direct oem replacement and it was not and has caused damage to my vehicle. I would like to ensure that I am properly compensated and I am looking for any advice you guys may have here. Thanks

PS. I know that I should have inspected the parts better but ultimately that is the QC of the manufacturers job and Autozone selects them reflecting a trust in their QC. I believe if there is a failure in that chain it is either the parts house or the manufacturers responsibility to right it not the customer. Please tell me if that is improper assumption.

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Disregard everything i say

I have a dana 30 front axle and amc 20 rear if anyone is looking. Both are 3.54, drums, narrowtrack.

Long story short Auto Zone sold me a CV axle that did not have a snap ring on the end to hold it into the differential. For whatever reason I missed that and installed it in my car. It has resulted in two tows, and me having to pull both cv's, drop the front subframe out of the car, and pull the differential out as now that side won't slide in without great force.

I needed to replace the driver side anyways as well so I ordered that one and this time it came with a snap ring on verifying that they should have sold me the pasenger side with the snap ring on as well.

So I may have to replace the new passenger side cv and the differential as well as wasting money on flui and a **** ton of time. Basically the guy at autozone said I am pretty much sol (He is trying to help me but I inferred) because auto zone does not back the parts the supplier does. The supplier will only really listen to you a credited shops word not mine. What gets me is autozone does not sell parts to shops they sell them to backyard mechanics and they advertise themselves as such. I spend a lot and I mean a lot of time and money in that store (the guys there all know it). The bottom line is they sold me a part that was supposed to be a direct oem replacement and it was not and has caused damage to my vehicle. I would like to ensure that I am properly compensated and I am looking for any advice you guys may have here. Thanks

PS. I know that I should have inspected the parts better but ultimately that is the QC of the manufacturers job and Autozone selects them reflecting a trust in their QC. I believe if there is a failure in that chain it is either the parts house or the manufacturers responsibility to right it not the customer. Please tell me if that is improper assumption.

Because I paid for a complete cv axle and they sold me an incomplete cv axle which I was unaware of and installed. They are responsible for ensuring that the parts that leave their door are what they described and I am responsible for installing the part in the proper fashion which assumes that the part they sold is complete. I am an engineer at an oem and I know for a fact that if we sell a defective part that causes damage to equipment we will pay for the damage no questions asked. You cannot expect the end user to be an expert in the QC of the part if his responsibility is to receive a complete part and install it as such.

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Disregard everything i say

I have a dana 30 front axle and amc 20 rear if anyone is looking. Both are 3.54, drums, narrowtrack.

They- just like you- thought you were getting a complete part. You'd be best off taking it up with whoever made the part rather than the retailer.

Retailer who sold, should do the dirty work not the paying customer to ensure top customer service and returning customer's. Pretty sure autozone has more nudge with a manufacture then a regular old joe.

Because I paid for a complete cv axle and they sold me an incomplete cv axle which I was unaware of and installed. They are responsible for ensuring that the parts that leave their door are what they described and I am responsible for installing the part in the proper fashion which assumes that the part they sold is complete. I am an engineer at an oem and I know for a fact that if we sell a defective part that causes damage to equipment we will pay for the damage no questions asked. You cannot expect the end user to be an expert in the QC of the part if his responsibility is to receive a complete part and install it as such.

Which had you inspected it for completeness prior to install, could have caught the missing piece. If that had been done, you could have returned the defective part prior to installing it and causing damage.
Maybe it just me BC I was taught differently, but I always look through parts I buy before I install, just in case. No manufacturer is perfect and to blame the middle man on your own error just doesn't seem right to me.

I think the only thing they can do is replace the defective part under warranty and say have a sorry for the defictive part. You failed to inspect the part prior to install so it's your fault not autozones. These type of things happen all time if its missing a peice the manafactures are cranking out parts as fast as they can and some time there are mistakes.

This is kind of like what happend to blitz one guy poors gas on a fire knowing that the gas will expolde and go after the people that make the container to store the gas. guy who burned himself gets rewarded for being stupid. Insted of going after the guy who sold/made the gas he goes after the middle man. In this case the guy who failed to inspect the part is now going after the middle man instead of the guy that made the part.

I'm not going to lie or try to defend what I did out of pride. I was in a hurry. I briefly inspected the parts. I mostly paid attention the the spindle side. I remember noticing that the snap ring groove on the old shaft was not as deep as the groove on the new shaft. In hindsight I now realize that because I did not turn the diff side of the old shaft while comparing what I was looking at when I noticed the groove was shallower was actually a compressed snap ring with oil on it. If I had turned the shaft and looked closer I would have seen the cut ends of the snap ring.

If I was a professional who looked at these every other day I would have most certainly noticed this. I am not, I am a backyard mechanic and this is the second time I have replaced a cv axle. I buy parts from autozone, they are a parts house who advertise as themselves towards catering to backyard mechanics. If they sell a defective part to a backyard mechanic I do not believe they can just say "well we do not stand behind these parts unless you are a credited shop." My business and loyalty is with autozone not the manufactuer. I paid for a complete part and was not given what I paid for. It is not realistic to think that they will never sell a defective part but when they do I do not think they should hold the customer responsible.

At the end of the day its not that big of a deal its a couple hundred dollars and about 10 hours of my time. I try to be an honest person and I believe that if I would have to lie to recieve compensation that I would rather foot the bill and leave that in the back of my mind as I buy parts for the rest of my roughly (Godwilling) 50 years on this earth building cars, trucks, boats, planes, anything else with a motor.

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Disregard everything i say

I have a dana 30 front axle and amc 20 rear if anyone is looking. Both are 3.54, drums, narrowtrack.

I was sold an axle shaft for my WJ that was missing the oil seal. Turns out that it's fairly common when that seal (or another part) is missing they'll take it from another boxed unit. Sometimes the manufacturer will even put the wrong part in a box. You could submit a labor claim to the manufacturer & cross your fingers, but I really think you're sol. Lesson Learned; Move on & In the rest of your 50+ years on this earth, just make sure you inspect what you take off & compair it to what's in the box.

Life expectancy of a male in the US is 76 so I guess 73+ is pretty realistic. I ride motorcycles, and fly ultralights, etc. so I don't want to jinx myself acting like I got a guaranteed 50+ years left. If I conduct pre-flights the same way I install cv's I guess I'll be pretty lucky to last even a couple more years lol

On that subject I believe psychological age is a way more important factor its just kind of impossible to quantify. If you don't know what psychological age is just thinking about the how long the first 15 years of you life felt compared to the next 15.

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Disregard everything i say

I have a dana 30 front axle and amc 20 rear if anyone is looking. Both are 3.54, drums, narrowtrack.